Intent

The comment on my last post posited two modes of solipsism, one mechanistic, a malfunction of the brain, the second manufactured, developed, nurtured as a defense against the unyielding world. He asked whether one, both, or neither constituted a core cause of evil.

I agree with him that evil, and good for that matter, are initiated in intent. Without intent, acts can be good or bad; outcomes can be joyous or tragic, but they will need other terms to explain their causes.

As a result, all references to "solipsism" in my previous post should be thought of as "willful solipsism." I hope others who come here will view the comment, because there are several additional insights there well worth considering.

Tonight, however, I want to raise the thorny issues that come with assigning good and evil to intent.

The problem, of course, is that we are often capable of shielding ourselves from our own intentions, and are utterly, irreversibly incapable of truly, wholly discerning the intent of another. The classic formulation of this argument is to examine Abraham at the point where God tells him to sacrifice his son.

Who, looking at Abraham from the outside, could assess his intent -- to honor God? As are all people, he is a closed book to us. Relying on intent also assumes a fundamental human awareness of good and evil. Were Abraham to have killed his son -- who among us would not have condemned this as a heinous act? It is undeniable. From Andrea Yates to Jim Jones to Charles Manson, our history records many who killed and claimed to do so under divine mandate -- and truly we do line up to condemn these individuals.

It is at points like these where the difference between good/evil and legal/illegal can, I believe most clearly be drawn. Ethics is not law, although ethics can be applied to law, I do not think that law can be applied to ethics. In fact, I firmly believe that in may ways law and ethics are in necessary opposition to one another -- that the increasing power of law in our nation is the underlying cause of the apposite deterioration of our ethics.